Deadly Ceremony

A plutocrat friend invited us to his daughter's marriage ceremony. Since he has been preesent in my daughter's ceremony and gave a nice cheque, it was impossible for me to escape. First station was the bar. I asked for a vodka and barman served me a generous Vodka+RedBull. Then cocktail of fried things somethings on toothpicks. Then fish with some sweet garniture and the main meat plate. Overcooked and covered with a thick, black, sweet-pepper sauce. I didnt stay for the sweets nor the coffee.

After the first vodka, total amnesia had descended on my mind and I forgot that during the last three months I had been fasting and my body was unready for this heavy food. I literally saw stars and fireworks. I could not sleep. Only after today's renewed fasting I feel the poisons are now more or less metabolized. I have heard that people liberated from concentration camps died at their first regular meal. I almost did.

Pic.: A marriage "hoopah". Jewish marriages are celebrated under a ritual tent. The main points are the signing and reading in public the marriage contract (the ketuba, which is in Aramaic), the examination of the ring (if it was bought by the man and if it is worth more than one prutah - cent), the public declaration "You are my wife under the law of Moses and Israel", and the promise that "Should I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its power, etc."). And food. Poisonous, heavy, undigestible food.

Hungary Broke the "Serb Curse"

9 against 6, in the European Waterpolo championship in Zagreb. A most violent sport. Most of the action is unseen, under the water.

Can China Defend its Monopoly?

The whole industrial world - Europe, United States, Japan - is dependent on China's rare earth exports. But as it industrializes rapidly, domestic consumption has tripled over the past five years and its own consumption will match production within a few years. Beijing is now reducing exports as it places priority on domestic supply. THere is a growing shortage and prices are climbing.

Deng Xiaoping was prescient when he equated the country's rare earths with the oil of the Middle East in 1992. As we know, the Middle East has been militarily occupied to secure the steady flow of oil. China may be risking its independence if tries to restrict the flow of rare earths.

Time for Courage

Companies worldwide are making tons of money and paying beautiful dividends, yet the market is fearful and the analysts - negative. Bloomberg checked 160,000 recommendations - less than 29% are "Buy". Nothing is more against the nature of an analyst than to advise Sell, because his salary is paid for promoting investments in the companies they analyze. A bad Sell (and all of them are bad) can freeze his contacts. If they say Sell in mass, one can be sure that their sphincters are contracted shitless and that they are all wrong. As usual.

How do I interpret what is happening? The sentiment is uncertainty and fear of a second crisis. In these times when the masses are paralyzed by panic, a courageous adventurer can seize properties and become a Lord of the Land (or landlord and live from the rent). Illustration: Francisco Pizarro.

The Best Remedy...

... is laugh.

It may be summertime...

... but the living is squeezy (Macroman sings).

The world is steadily competing for raw materials, so any slow down in the West can only express deflation through lower wages as competition for jobs tightens and hence labour cost inputs fall. So whilst service sector (higher labour component) may see a higher relative price deflation, the basic cost of survival, food and energy to the individual stays the same, or rises as we are now seeing.

Food production nowadays is a matter of converting fossil fuels to food. So food is not only being competed for directly but via energy costs too - see chart of Wheat (white line) and Oil (brown line). Macroman concludes with the obvious (obvious once one has read it): This could all be looked at as a symptom of the macro picture. The one of the flattening of the global wealth gradient based on the rule that if someone is willing and able to do your job for less than you, you are stuffed. Americans, in his words, are stuffed.

The Need for Optimism

American birthrate has been falling rapidly since the subprime crisis. This trend is very difficult to reverse so probably it will last a decade or two. The growing diversity of the population will make it difficult to adopt pro-natalist policies as did Western Europe. Will be taxpayers (mostly White) finance minority population growth? Human beings are not like that. Already 48.3% of kids under age 5 are minorities.

Why are Whites postponing having children? They are living a situation of profound change and uncertainty, and human beings in this situation are unwilling to take up responsabilities. It is the very same phenomenon that happened to Russia and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Communist social and political order. Only now, twenty years after Gorbachov, Russia is slowly coming back to itself. East Germany, Hungary, Latvia, etc. births seem to have collapsed permanently. I am not living in America, but I imagine that the economic crisis and uncertainty is much deeper than we are reading about. Young people lost its faith in the future and is not having children. Very bad.

I hope Americans regain their optimism and self-confidence soon. There is an urgent need for optimism, investors investing in new longterm projects, young people marrying and having children. Life is risky, but should not stop because temporary uncertainty.

Operational Conclusion: American firms are making lots of money. Stocks are cheap. Buy. Accumulate.

Illustration: The optimist: "If this crisis continues, we will eat shit". Pessimist: "How can you be sure that there will be enough for all?"

Latin Folklore: El Paredon

72 persons trying to become illegal immigrants were massacred on the Mexican side (pic). The going explanation is that smuggling 72 people represented about $500,000 to the Zeta drug gang and they choose not to deliver. El Paredon (The Big Wall, meaning firing squad) is the traditional Spanish/Latin American way of execution.

What if Foreigners See the CIA as an Exporter of Bullshit?

”What If Foreigners See the United States as an ’Exporter of Terrorism’” was leaked and it speculates on American Jews in Yehuda and Shomron. This memo was prepared by the CIA Red Cell, which has been charged by the Director of Intelligence with taking a pronounced "out-of-the-box" approach that will provoke thought and offer an alternative viewpoint on the full range of analytic issues. Comments and queries are welcome and may be directed to the CIA Red Cell at (703)482-6918 / 482-0169 or 44462/50127, secure. (C)

Apparently, Wikileaks is working for the CIA or it is the CIA. Not that I care, the CIA is a friendly service. The Red Cell seems to be interested in young American Jews in Israel. It shouldnt worry, because the Jewish Branch of its local counterpart has dozens of people watching them and they seem rather more determined in building (forbidden, illegal, persecuted) yeshives than bothering the goat-herds in their neighborhood.



I have a few out-of-the-box ideas to follow up by the Red Cell. For example, What if Foreigners Take a Look to CIA operatives's hotel bar bills? In the Italian "rendition", they spent thousands of taxpayer money on booze and friendly working girls. I do understand that it is a legitimate business expense, but Foreigners may think America's streets are paved with Gold and may wish to join the bonanza. What if Foreigners read the Red Cell twenty years old bullshit on Dr. Baruch Goldstein and conclude that the CIA is fixated on ancient, obsolete, passe terrorism and is fighting the last war or the one before that? It is surprising that the memo did not mention the terrorist bomb against Archduke Ferdinand by the Serbian Black Hand which changed history (for worse). THAT was Red Cell material.

Optimist Guru

Gary, a serious fund manager, reports:

The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

Worth taking note.

A few hours later: Stocks rose, trimming a third- straight weekly drop.

The Roentgen vs the Baba Baruch

The rivalry between the Moroccan Saints is turning ugly. The Baba Baruch from Netivot (a poor development town in the Negev) sent a young woman to consult the Roentgen (so called because he can see inside the human body and make an exact diagnosis of the real cause of someone's disease, difficulty in getting pregnant or commercial misfortune). The idea was to photograph the saint touching her or staring at her, so he would be discredited. The Roentgen (Rabbi Yaakov Ifargen, pic) is famous for fertilizing women desiring babies. He stopped receiving females.

Falling population and deflation

Japan. Population is aging fast and the are numbers falling. The economy is trapped in a death spiral of deflation and depression. Aristotle already observed that elderly people does not invest in innovative (unproven), risky (uncertain), long term projects. They dont buy real estate. They are pessimists (rfealists), have no hope in a better future and they lack the elan that fuels economical growth.

The corolarium is that growing economies are to be found in moderately growing Western and East Asian populations organized in stable governmental frameworks. From the CIA Country Profile comparison chart, I extract: Turkey, Peru, Colombia, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, the USA, New Zealand, China, France, Korea, Switzerland. These seem to be the countries of the future. The pic shows a Carian (ancient Turkey) tetradrachm, with the head of Aphrodite and forepart a lion (circe 400 BC). Asia was rich then.

Hostile Government

Otellini, INTEL's CEO, said: "I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States". Ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose. (Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers elaborated on this saying the problem is not higher U.S. wages but antibusiness laws: "The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways.").

It's like Israel. No, we are like the USA.

Death of an Industry

I am mapping a textile factory's infrastructure. I love learning new industries and talking with "real" people, those who ARE the economy of Israel. I am surprised how fit I am, we walked up and down in the large factory more than three hours, and I am not tired. The factory was started by two Hungarian Jewish brothers walking the farms and buying goose feathers to fill typical European bed covers. The factory has extensive feather washing machines and a DAF clarifier to treat the wastewater. All that is rusting unused, because the Israeli animal rights movement killed the goose fattening industry (they were force-fed, which was deemed cruel). With no raw material, the factory was dying so they started importing feathers from France. The French love their pate de fois gras more than the suffering birdies. Now the main supplier is, guess what, China. Those blue bales are from China. The factory also started a synthetic line, but anyone who has slept under them can testify that it is inferior. I would like to ask the activists that killed the local goose feather industry and feel clean, moral, superior: Is the world a better place because of their sanctimonous war against our goose farmers?

Givat Olam Oil Miracle

The man in the pic, a Haredi Jew, asked the late Rabbi of Lubavitch if there is oil in Eretz Israel. The Rabbi consulted the Bible and said "Yes, it is there". After almost twenty years of trials, the Givat Olam well near Kever Benjamin City proved commercial. The shares of Givat Olam are 500% up and the trade was stopped several times these days. I dont own. I presume we shall be joining OPEC.

Fears of Deflation

World bourses are falling and bonds are rising because people expects deflation. As Krugman explains

when prices are falling, just sitting on cash becomes an investment with a positive real yield – Japanese bank deposits are a really good deal compared with those in America. And when that happens, the economy may stay depressed because people expect deflation, and deflation may continue because the economy remains depressed.

Mentioning Japan as an example of what can be happening to America makes me feel worse. A year ago I bought a few dollar denominated Bonds of the State of Israel and they made 8%. This is looking more and more like a prolongued depression. Maybe I too should get out of the stock exchange.

Reflexion: Who will profit from deflation? The Chinese. America's debt to China will have to be repaid with more valuable dollars. It is unbelievable that the USA is doing this to itself.

They will end in jail

Salmonella was found on some egg shells and a dozen or so people complained of stomach ache. This put in movement the monstruos American bureaucratic machine erected "to protect the people" and already millions dollars worth of eggs have been destroyed. The risk of infection by Salmonella is minimum - just boil or fry the egg.

But there is more. The machine will not stop till the complete destruction of its target. Like the unfortunate Rubashkin from Agriprocessors, the people whose eggs carried the bacteria will surely end ruined and in jail. Having fired the cannon to shoot the mosquito, now they started investigating the suspected financial ties between DeCoster (the capitalist from Wright County Egg) and Hillandale Farms. And his animal rights record. From the WSJ:

In 2003, DeCoster made a $125-million investment in Ohio Fresh Eggs — a company co-owned by Orland Bethel, who is also the owner of Hillandale Farms. DeCoster is well known to agriculture regulators. His various farm operations have been cited for violations of immigration and environmental laws. In June, a DeCoster egg farm in Maine agreed to pay a $36,000 in fines and restitution and donate $100,000 to the state's Department of Agriculture to settle charges of cruelty to animals following a hidden camera investigation by an animal rights group.

Each year about 4000 persons die in swimming pools in America. If they had to be permitted today, there would be no swimming pools and those swimming in the sea would risk prosecution.

From the local Zionist press here:

American Jewish astronaut Garrett Reisman is considering aliyah (immigration) to Israel, according to Minister of Science and Technology Daniel Hershkowitz, who met with Reisman during a recent trip to the United States.

Reisman, 42, told Hershkowitz that the question of whether or not he will live in Israel will be decided based on his ability to find suitable work.

Why should an American astronaut make aliyah? Financially and professionally America offers him much more than Israel. What is missing in America? Or is the desire to live among people like oneself so strong?

Perpetuum mobile

August in Israel

Very hot.

I just came from the swimming pool: there are only children in the water. Kever Benjamin streets are empty, everybody is at home with full air conditioning. My daughter was sent home from her job: there is no one in the mall.

British Right's Jewish Brigade

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From the HaAretz fishwrapIn March 2009 a unit of British soldiers returned from a stint in Iraq and, as usual, were welcomed with a parade and reception at home - in this case in Luton, not far from London. Standing out in the crowd of civilians cheering the troops was a group of counter-demonstrators, a few dozen long-bearded Muslims who shouted slogans against the British forces and carried posters bearing messages such as "The butchers from Basra." Many in Luton were outraged, and within a few days a group organized and eventually developed into the English Defence League.

Indeed, what began as an emotional reaction turned into a popular movement which, according to the British media, is growing rapidly and now numbers thousands of supporters; it's hard core is located in Luton. The organization calls for taking action against the "Islamization of Britain" and Muslim fundamentalists. British media reports suggest that the league is a magnet for extremist right-wing activists and for unruly soccer fans. In late May the organization gained an important addition in the form of what it calls the "Jewish division." According to one member, "hundreds of Jews" joined its ranks, including "young people who are dying to do something." In the streets of England, Jews can now be seen demonstrating together with people they would have shunned in the past.

Germany's Schadenfreude

It is only natural that the Germans should hate their conquerors, the Americans. It is a secret, repressed yet passionate sentiment that I find every time I speak to a German or a Hungarian. Der Spiegel has an article that gives expression to this feeling: It describes America's current problems in the typical fact-filled, apparently objective way, yet one can intuit the underlying pleasure derived from America's misfortune. I am not criticizing, I said it is only human and natural. That's the way we are all made. Thomas Schulz writes:

In fact, the United States, in the wake of a real estate, financial economic and now debt crisis, which it still hasn't overcome, is threatened by a social Ice Age more severe than anything the country has seen since the Great Depression.

Because they lacked savings, Americans began borrowing money to cover all of their other expenses, including education, healthcare and consumption. American consumer debt now totals about $13.5 trillion.

Many people threaten to suffocate under the burden of their debt. Some 61 percent of Americans have no financial reserves and are living from paycheck to paycheck. As little as a single hospital bill can spell potential financial ruin.

What Schulz lets unsaid is the comparison with the prosperity of the sober, austere, hardworking Germany of 2010. Yet "Rejoice not when thine adversary falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth" (Proverbs 24:17–18).

Zionism is Alive

American Jews continue immigrating to Israel. (See the clip). It is not a mass movement, but they are building up a critical mass. Beautiful people.

Albert Speer's Ideas

The son of Hitler's architect and armament tzar, Albert Speer is also an architect and city planner. He says that the post-war reconstruction of German cities was mis-planned, because it abandoned German cities's historic centers in order to disperse the population (so it would be more difficult to bomb them out as they were in WWII).

But people is gregarious and love to crowd together. The ancient centers are reviving. Israel also adopted the same dispersion theory and we too are experiencing its failure. Central Tel Aviv is where people wants to live and the prices are astronomical. Rents are high.

If Speer is right and this is the trend, investment in real estate in the periphery (as my friends are doing) is a mistake. Better pay more and buy in Tel Aviv or Ramat Gan. The pic is from Der Spiegel and shows Qatar's stadium project by Speer. Qatar wants to host the olympics.

The Battle for POT

The mano-a-mano combat has started and the question is if POT's micro-shareholders (like me) will benefit. After Billiton's hostile takeover offer, PotashCorp (POT) approved a shareholder rights plan Monday, throwing a so-called "poison pill" that may delay Billiton's takeover. The move effectively dilutes any ownership BHP may have already obtained.

"It really is an attempt by the Potash Corporation to make sure any takeover bid is negotiated directly through them rather than through the mechanism of offers made directly to shareholders," Prof. Boyd said.

"I think they're possibly holding out, maybe hoping there's some sort of Canadian guardian angel who might crop up and who may make a competing bid." In such a case, shareholders would choose whether to sell their shares to BHP or another bidding company.

I am expecting that a new bidder will appear and join the battle, and POT's price will rise to 200$ (now it is 147).

Vision

According to a worldwide survey, there are 8,419 persons with one million dollars worth of investments in Israel. In Hong Kong, there are 209,000. They did it, so it can be done.

POT is a gold mine

Mr Doyle, the CEO of Potash Corp., has made rich many people around the world. Today Israel Chemicals (partly owned by POT) lifted 8%, making up for my losses during the last two bad years. The immediate casue is Billiton's offer to buy POT, electrifying the market. "The fertilizer industry is emerging from the recent global economic downturn, and we feel strongly that PotashCorp shareholders should benefit from the current and potential value of the Company." Well said, Mr Doyle.

Addendum for those unfamiliar with Mr Doyle: Have you ever tried to organize a group action? My first experience in organization was a summer camp for a Zionist youth movement in Argentina. Soon I felt my chaverim were not cooperating and gave up. I understood that am not a born leader and am in awe of the natural ones. Now imagine to organize a worlwide fertilizer cartel. I cant imagine how he got competing organizations in Russia, BieloRussia, Ucraine, Germany, Israel, etc. to act in coordination against their immediate interest. Mr Doyle, a Canadian, did it. He is a magician.

Antizionism in Israel

All Israeli universities are full of far leftist liberal humanitarian teachers. Some of their works have became the basis of worldwide campaigns for Israel's delegitimation. About 400 of them (!) have signed a circular demanding foreign universities to boycott Israeli institutions in order to apply pressure on the country. The President of Ben-Gurion University is a rabid feminist - Prof. Rivka Carmi - who recently fired a professor who commented that children could be harmed by being raised by male couples, while consistently advancing teachers who call to boycott Israel.

This morning I heard a radio interview with a professor who is fighting these bastards. "I am for academic freedom and people should be, as it is, free to think or to say anything, even calling for boycotting their own university. But the least to expect from these highly ethical and morally correct teachers is that they themselves boycott these "immoral" institutions and refuse to be a part of them. Alternatively, they should accept with understanding their own sacking.

Demographic Victory

Yasser Arafat predicted that the Palestinian victory will come from the "kuss" (vagina) of the Palestinian woman. Not that he was personally interested: the famous freedom fighter was more into dressing up in drag and playing jumping tiger with his bodyguards. He was also wrong. Israeli Arab births have stabilized around 40,000 a year, while Jewish births are rising consistently. Arab populations have modernized and entered the demographic transition and are not growing anymore, while Israeli Jews are becoming more traditional and family oriented. We are winning this battle too.

Anchor Babies Battle in Israel

Stop using your children as human shields, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Monday during a special Knesset session held to discuss the issue of granting permanent residency to children of illegal immigrants. There are 2 to 5 million Eritreans and Sudanis moving from the Red Sea coast towards Israel, with the idea of infiltrating the border and find a job here. About 100,000 have succeeded and granted refugee or temporary status; the rest are crowding in the Sinai frontier. Yesterday there was an obscure incident in Sinai, the beduins that guide them wanted more money, the Eritreans refused, the Beduins tied them (about 200 of them), they escaped and took the Beduin weapons and in the shootout half a dozen were killed. Many of them have formed families in Israel and there are tens of thousands of "illegal" children born in Israel. Jewish charities led by Sarah Netaniyahu are fighting to legalize the children (with their families). The only voice to stop the "invasion" is the Sepharadi Religious Party's leader Eli Yishay, who called the humanitarian liberals "fakes and hypocrites giving a public show" and said that they should visit the slums where these people reside.

The Ashkenazi political establishment is unanimously silent or crying out "we Jews cannot deport children". I always thought that we Ashkenazi Jews are the weakest link of the Jewish people, that the Spanish expulsees (Sepharadim) and the Orientals (Iraqis, Persians, Bucharans) are much tougher. I am glad we have Eli Yishay, next time I may vote for him.

Cochin Jew

I have been dropped into a horrible universe. Work is my only distraction. Yesterday I travelled to the Deep South to a large chicken growing project. The apparent Client is a Cochini Jew (pic.). Apparent because it is impossible to know who is really behind it. Cochini Jews are from South India, and they settled in the desert. The Negev is being developed very fast and they are now wealthy landowners. Cochini girls are very well formed and sexy.

Yoghurt Factory

Current project: A dairy farm that is becoming a medium size yoghurt manufacturer. The raw yoghurt is sold to a second factory that makes fruit yoghurts and markets them. The old farmer sits on the doorsteps sipping tea while the factory is managed by the farmer's daughter. She was busy with an Italian technician that was installing newly imported equipment.

One hundred years ago

Time does its work on us and life goes on.

Detroit has astonishing architectural surprises, like this well preserved store floor built in the 19th century. From Detroitblog. I love the colors. Where are the giants who built these stores?

Tzures

I am in no mood to blog for a while. Sorry. "Tzures" means problems.

Starting at 92

The Newsweek Magazine was bought by Sidney Harman, the 92-year-old founder (in 1952) of a stereo equipment factory. Harman is planning to turn around the losing company and in the future, to expand it into the digital sphere. This NYC Jew has answered my question last week if at my age should I expand my business.

Israel is prospering

The State of Israel has 64 billion dollar reserves. It is not so much compared with China, Taiwan, Singapur, but it should be remembered (and I do remember) that this country was striving for "economic independence" only ten years ago. People (myself included) was very sceptical that this country could survive without World Jewry's donations and American assistance. Yet we are prospering, at 30,000 dollar per capita GNP, not far from the European Union's average (that is, we compare with Britain, Germany, Sweden). Pic.: When I came to Israel, you had to have "tlushim" (permits) to buy eggs. Difficult to believe now, but am of the generation that experienced going to chicken farms (not far from Kever Benjamin city) to buy eggs (it was done in semi-secret, I think in my times there was no more rationing, but people continued behaving like that for long time after. TAHAL, the water company I worked for, had a company store in Petach Tikva and I had a ration card. That was in 1976).

Anon makes a point

Anon had commented on Hillary's dress and yes, he is right, definitely, Hillary's fashionista is Nigerian.

De la Tentacion Libranos

We arrived to Argentina without knowing a word of Spanish and lived in a working class barrio of Gran Buenos Aires. There were few opportunities to meet educated people and my father used to take me on Sunday mornings to the Church to hear the preacher. Sometimes we also went to the synagogue, but it was far away (we had no money and avoided travelling on buses), a chaotic, noisy and badly smelling place full of Yiddisch speaking Jews reciting precipitatedly from dirty books in Hebrew while taking part on the several, simultaneous business congress going on around. Obviously it never passed through the mind of my father that we Jews should not go to a church. We were Jews like an African is black and nothing could change that. And we were immune to metaphysics to the point that it was not even considered. I liked Catholic church ceremonies, the melodic, slow, clear diction of the Padre and the welcoming attitude of the people. In my times, part of the ceremony was in Latin, which helped me to learn good Spanish, and the priests made a large effort to make the cermony and its meaning clearly understandable to the simple people attending. An hour or so each Sunday morning was spent in monotonous repeating of the Padre Nuestro, which I can quote even drunk and sleeping. "De la Tentacion libranos" - free us from temptation is part of it. I had this mantra in the back of my mind because yesterday night I broke my fasting and went into the only open food store around, a Russian non-kosher specialty food store and bought 250 gr cheese and 250 gr hering and devoured it in situ. I should not put my foot in that treyfl tempting Satanic (well, not really) place again. BTW, as temptations are supposed to be, the food was excellent.

TSEM - An Opportunity?

TOWER is a heavily indebted Israeli chip foundry that has been fighting for its survival during the last five years. It seems to have passed the most dangerous phase and now is starting to grow steadily. Its share price rised 500% in the last year, yet still so I think it is very cheap. TSEM is in my mind.

Is our evolutionary future dysgenic?

I dont think so.



The hypothesis that modern Western societies are dysgenic was formulated by Galton. Anyone can reproduce his "experiment": take a Who Is Who and count the children of the individuals inside. It averages about one per person. If you feel that the Who Is Who contains too many vulgar parvenus, take the English or European Blue-Blood Aristocracy's Almanac. They too are failing to maintain their numbers and many illustrious family names are going extint. Galton reasoned that the English ruling class was being replenished from below, and in the long term, the average quality of the English nation would deteriorate.

I never believed in his theory, and later, accurate mass IQ measurements failed to register any lowering of average IQ. I think that Galton was a statistical genius but being a Victorian gentleman, he was utterly inhibited to think about human sexuality. Victorian gentlemen were not informed that humans do this dirty something called (how they called it...?) ... and that they do it mostly under the cover of the night and in secret, without informing the Gotha Almanac. Up to 30% of English babies have that thing called non-paternity, that is, their bioogical father is not the publicly registered. I remember in Upstairs, Downstairs soap that a boy of the family made pregnant one of the many servant girls in the house, and they fast married her to the house driver. In Argentina in my times this was a very common happening. What I am saying is that most of the sex going on in a society is not public and that the high class males are doing most of it. It is well known that Bill Clinton is a case of non-paternity.

All societies are structured in a way that the ruling class boys have more access to reproductive age girls, in many cases, to the point of freely raping any peasant girl they desire (read the "Secret Life" of Acton, a rich Londoner of the 19th Century). You know WHO is structuring society and it is not the moronic proletariat. Thus I believe there was no dysgenic trend till now and there is none today. What about the trend and what about the future? God knows. And I dont care.

Trembling during the night

We are having an extremely hot wave all this week and we have the air conditioner working day and night. Around 4 AM it becomes so cold that I wake up trembling of cold. People is feeling unwell and sick, so much that I suspect some kind of mild virus epidemy in Israel. May be that people is consuming spoiled food or the heat evaporates the chlore in the water and parasites are transmitted. We in Israel are starting to drink desalinated sea water (see the new Hadera plant clip).

The hot air hitting us comes from Irak and Saudi Arabia. On June 22, 2010, it was 52.0°C (125.6°F) in Jeddah. The record heat was accompanied by a sandstorm, which caused eight power plants to go offline, resulting in blackouts to several Saudi cities. This planet is getting hotter, and very fast, no doubt of it.

How could a speculator (one who sees the future and acts on his vision - not me!) profit from this phenomenon? Some investors have been buying wheat on concern that Russia may restrict or ban exports. Wheat futures gained 37 percent in July. Wheat, a temperate climate crop, will be scarce in the near future. Till new tropical varieties are produced.

Dog Days

We are suffering in Kever Benjamin a wave of canicula. I feel lassitude and weariness and light depression: my environmental report for a Negev project was rejected with a 8 pg academic analysis why it is no good. I had submitted my report a year ago (!) and they lost it, and I sent it again, and they sent it to the Central Office in Jerusalem, that hired a consulting firm to evaluate it. The consultants wrote an 8 pg report which is amazing, because they say that there is no entry data for the model. I answered ipso facto by mail how the hell did they imagine the model was run without data? They studied only the computer model and they did not relate to the annexes where I do the analysis with alternative methodologies to verify the model output. I am 100% sure that the Ministry did not forward the whole report to their analysis but only a few printouts. Well, it is tiring and depressing.

Worse that the above, is that I missed the Walla opportunity. Today it was announced that the media group Walla was merging or selling to a larger media group and the share rised 30%. Buying Walla was in my mind all this weekend, because my little daughter, the starlet, is being auditioned for a publicity film produced by Walla. She says Walla's offices are old and battered, which is an excellent sign for an investor, showing that they dont spend money in luxuries (my daughter is getting 800 dollars for one day's work, so I think to go myself into the show business). Yet I procrastinated and missed Walla. Tomorrow is another day. Hope so. (Pic.: La Lassitude d’Orphée, Giorgio de Chirico).

Good Omen

A long questionnaire on an university website's life expectancy calculator gave me 26 years more to live. The questions focused on smoking (I dont), driving (I'm careful), type of work (sedentary) and family diseases (heart). 26 years is a good omen when, instead of retiring, I'm embarking in a new business venture. (Pic.: Old Man and Young Woman, by Lucas The Elder Cranach.)

On the Road to Jerusalem

Ex President Bill Clinton has lost weight and is looking very well. I liked the marriage ceremony of his only daughter although the religious aspect is bizarre, to say the lest. Having two priests officiating is politheism, like the Greeks and the Romans who sacrificed to several gods and had even one ceremony for the unknown god, just to be on the sure side. In fact, they dont believe in anything. Anyway, nice people and it is imaginable that Bill's grandchildren may end up building the walls of Jerusalem with us.

Business Vision

Mori Arkin, an Israeli businessman, has bought 10% of a slimming drug company, OREXIGEN THERAPEUTCS (NASDAQ:OREX). The stock is 40% down and Arkin apparently thinks it is cheap. OREX has one drug in the FDA channel, something composed by two anti-addiction drugs that made 65% of the people lose weight against the 35% who lost weight with the placebo fake drug. Dr Rasputin maintains that eating is an addiction and one has to fast long periods to disintoxicate oneself. He may be 30% right. The FDA will approve this pill in December. Mori Arkin has that winged thing called vision, so it can be assumed that OREX may be an opportunity.

Bad: America in a Down Mood

London's Financial Times has a long report about American middle class declining income and perspectives in a 40 year long view. I was hit by a warehouseman saying that he was two months salaries ahead of destitution. No savings, no capital, no education, just surviving from day to day in the world's richest country.

Capitalism can exist only in an expanding, optimist economy. Are American stocks and assets too expensive? The government is flooding the markets with cheap money, so there may be a huge distortion of prices and so ALL ASSET PRICES ARE HIGH. Pablo Valenzuela comments in the WSJ (Europe):

The bond and housing markets are the easiest to understand. Too much money in the bond market, prices are high, yields are low. Add that the Fed buys Treasury debt directly when the auction isn´t going so well. Housing, government agencies financing 90% of mortgages, cheap money keeps housing prices higher than they should be. Note that these government entities are completely bankrupt and loosing billions by the day! Housing prices have little relation to fundamentals like employment, earnings etc, they are entirely driven by 2 bankrupt government agencies.

Equities, a little more complex but bear with me dear reader. If you take out the earnings of financial institutions from the SP 500, then earnings growth is pathetic. Why take out earnings from financial institutions, because Fed distortion is producing record earnings for banks via a steep yield curve. Banks are getting money at close to 0% and buying long bonds at 4% producing record earnings.

Here is another problem, money taken from depositors, private sector, is being used to buy government debt, thus the credit crunch and, we are all working for the government via financing record deficits. Conclusion, all asset prices are distorted.

This is classic Third Work economics as practiced by Latin American and African countries, government runs huge deficit, central bank buys the debt which causes other problems etc etc. Notice that most of those countries don´t practice this stuff anymore because it doesn´t work...

Let us rejoice therefore
While we are young.
After a pleasant youth
After a troubling old age
The earth will have us.
Ubi sunt qui ante nos
In mundo fuere?
Vadite ad superos
Transite in inferos
Hos si vis videre.
Where are [they] who before us
Were in the world?
Go to the heavens
Cross over into hell
If you wish to see them.
Vita nostra brevis est
Brevi finietur.
Venit mors velociter
Rapit nos atrociter
Nemini parcetur.
Our life is brief
Soon it will end.
Death comes quickly
Snatches us cruelly
It spares no one.